The final thesis designs an apartment building with terraces, bikeshop and underground garage. The building is situated in the city of Hradec Králové. Building has four floors and one underground floor. The main root area is designed as extensive green roof. The supporting system consists of a cast-in-place reinforced concrete frame with masonry of brick blocks. The whole building will be insulated by external thermal insulation composite system of mineral fibers. The building design meets the requirements for almost zero energy consumption houses.

The topic of my diploma thesis is new building kindergarten. The house is situated in flat terrain in Kroměříž on the outskirts of the city. House has 2 floors. The first floor is divided into two classes and economic section, on the second floor there are 2 another classes. Overall kindergarten is designed for 96 children. The building is designed in the system Porotherm (walls and ceilings) with thermal system ETICS WEBER. The roof is a flat extensive green roof.

Many studies consider the potential for preferential trade agreements (PTAs) to have differing effects on trade. Kohl (2014) and Baier et al. (2019) show that some PTA’s promote trade while the majority of PTAs have no significant effect. Some even lower trade. Why do these differing cases arise? One possibility is that the effects of trade agreements depend on specific provisions – provisions that differ across agreements. Another possibility is the potential for PTAs to impact trade differently depending on the presence of certain bilateral characteristics between trading nations such as physical distance or metaphorical types of distance such as culture or language. In my dissertation, “Heterogeneous Effects of Trade Agreements on Trade,” we explore these two avenues separately.In the first chapter we consider if differences in the prevalence of corruption between members of a PTA make trade agreements more or less effective at boosting trade. Such differences could create more uncertainty that limits the potential for trade even if a trade agreement lowers barriers, implying that such agreements will not boost trade. On the other hand, trade agreements could be most effective in such disparate countries. Not only might trade agreements remove barriers used by corrupt officials to extort firms, but a trade agreement could reduce the uncertainty of operating in a different business environment by establishing rules and regulations. Results in this paper are allowed to differ across several dimensions, including extensive versus intensive margin, whether the exporter or importer is more corrupt, and between South-South and South-North trade. Using a gravity model of trade spanning a panel of countries from 1996 to 2017, we find that PTAs increase trade more along the intensive margin when importing countries are more corrupt but boost trade more along the extensive margin when exporting countries are more corrupt. Results are stronger for trade between South-South (S-S) countries than between North-South (N-S) countries. Chapter two examines how specific provisions within trade agreements – particularly, provisions regarding environmental standards – affect trade between members and non-members. While there is a rising trend to incorporate different types of environmental provisions in preferential trade agreements (PTAs), few studies took explicit steps to assess the trade consequences of environmental provisions in PTAs. This paper employs a gravity model over the period from 1984 to 2016 and uses a new detailed dataset on a broad range of environmental provisions in PTAs to fill the gap in the literature by looking at possible trade diversion effects from trade agreements with deep environmental clauses. We follow Mattoo et al. (2017) and construct an index that captures importers’ average depth of trade agreements with the rest of the world where depth is taken as the extent that environmental provisions are covered. The inclusion of this depth variable allows us to see if any trade diversion effect arises from trade agreements with deep environmental provisions. We specifically focus on exporters with low environmental standards, as those are the countries that are likely to “host” trade in environmentally unsustainable goods. We also differentiate between different types of environmental policies and concentrate on trade in “dirty” products. Our results suggest that environmental provisions in PTAs are an effective tool of promoting environmentally sustainable trade in the world, as these types of policies tend to reduce “dirty” trade even with non-member nations. Finally, the third chapter considers the heterogeneous design of PTA’s more broadly, looking at the trade effects of different policy areas within trade agreements, while differentiating their impact on trade in new product varieties of goods versus trade in existing products. We specifically focus on 18 “core” provisions that Hofmann et al. (2019) mark as most economically relevant policies. We further distinguish three types of policies within the “core” group of provisions, namely: i) provisions that directly liberalize trade through either reduction in tariffs or simplification of standards, ii) policies that enable signatory nations to compete on equal grounds, and iii) provisions that specify the rules of investment. Previous studies that consider the effects of trade agreements on the margins of trade have either focused on the effects of different types of PTAs, rather than specific policies, or used limited data and outdated methodologies. We are contributing to the literature by assessing the impact of different groups of policies on the margins of international trade using a highly disaggregated dataset covering a large number of countries and years. We also employ Factor Analysis to check robustness of our findings using regular count indices. Our results indicate that provisions that tend to reduce barriers to trade through either simplification of standards or reduction in monetary charges tend to increase trade in existing varieties of goods, while the effect of investment provisions is either insignificant or might actually lower trade.

The main objective of the research was to study the effect of the Stenotaphrum secundatum and Zoysia japonica grasses on the higher and lower environment temperature and lower relative humidity; the secondary objective was to compare whether the Stenotaphrum secundatum grass has a greater impact on the environment parameters of comfort than the Zoysia japonica species. Six materials were used for the extensive green roof, each one forming a layer of the system, which were placed on the concrete slab and in an upward direction, including: PVC geomembrane, Polyester asphalt carpet, Pumice stone, Planar geodren, Prepared soil with guano, compost, muss, and Substrate. In order to make measurements of the higher and lower ambient temperature, a digital thermometer and lower relative humidity meter was used. Stenotaphrum secundatum and Zoysia japonica were used as grass species, as they were the most representative of the grasses used in extensive green roofs. The experimentation was carried out for 2 months from September to October of 2021, having built 3 modules of 1000x600mm roofs, including 1module of the concrete roof with ceramic covering and 2 modules of extensive green roof with two types of grass: Stenotaphrum secundatum and Zoysia japonica. The readings of the environment temperature and relative humidity of the higher and lower part were taken in six points of each module to have a greater number of representative measurements. The watering of the 2 green roof modules with grass was carried out twice a week, applying 5L of water per module. The results indicate that the Zoysia japonica grass is the one that presents a better behavior before the higher ambient temperature and that the Stenotaphrum secundatum grass behaves better before the lower ambient temperature and lower relative humidity. The conclusions indicate that the Stenotaphrum secundatum grass behaves better temperature and relative humidity; the two grass types exhibit different behavior.

This study investigates the possible benefits of using the extensive reading approach as means of enhancing reading motivation, and through that improve and develop EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners’ vocabular repertoire. According to the Swedish Media Council, almost 49% of the Swedish youth do not read books in their free time, and the numbers keep decreasing (Statens Medieråd, 2019). At a time where reading is no longer as common, several researchers have claimed that implementing the extensive reading approach in EFL classrooms gives space for incidental vocabulary acquisition to take place. It has been further argued that extensive reading is an appreciated approach by students, since it gives them the freedom to learn at their own pace. However, there is still some disagreement among researchers as to whether extensive reading does increase reading motivation or not. For this study, data and material were gathered through electronic searches from numerous educational databases to investigate this matter and provide an overview of the findings. The overall results indicate that extensive reading does have a beneficial impact on vocabulary acquisition, and that students are generally positive and receptive to extensive reading, especially when combined with reading-tasks and activities. However, further research is necessary to be able to understand whether vocabular gains from extensive reading actually are affected by reading motivation or not.

EUSO-Balloon and EUSO-SPB are balloon borne pathfinder projects designed to val- idate the techniques of the JEM-EUSO space observatory. They are nadir pointing UV telescopes that use experimental experimental Fresnel optics to detect the ultravi- olet emission of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) induced by Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) in the atmosphere. EUSO-Balloon was launched by the balloon di- vision of CNES (the french space agency) from Timmins, Ontario, Canada in 2014. Despite the success of the mission the performance of the optics was lower than what it was originally modeled and led to many doubts regarding the understanding of the optics and fresnel lenses themselves. This thesis explores three parameters proposed to explain the reduction in eciency of the system which were not simulated in the original characterization: the rounded valleys in the Fresnel lens grooves created by the tool peak radii, scratches on the surface of the lenses and the surface roughness of the fresnel lenses. These parameters were simulated and results show that they show a reduction in performance which approximates more the characterization measure- ments but still do not match exactly, leaving room for further analysis. EUSO-SPB1 is the successor of EUSO-Balloon with a launch planned in 2017 from Wanaka, New Zealand. The results of the first phase of the optics characterization campaign is pre- sented in this work. The results indicate that the optics performance is similar to that of EUSO-Balloon and require further understanding. / <p>Thesis defended in Toulouse, France as part of the SPACEMASTER programme.</p>

The topic of my thesis is the design of a kindergarten in Rajhrad. The building is one storey with a flat roof. In the middle of the building there are technical facilities, a kitchen, a director's office and facilities for staff. On the sides there are classrooms with bathrooms and cloakrooms. The load-bearing masonry is designed of Heluz ceramic blocks. The perimeter masonry is insulated with the ETICS contact insulation system. The roof structure is made of prefabricated floor slabs SPIROLL. The building is covered by a green flat roof. The building will be heated by a gas condensing boiler. It will have an air handling unit located on the roof along with photovoltaic panels. Intelligent LED lighting will be deployed throughout the building. The third part deals with the comparison between masonry construction and the more environmentally friendly clay construction. Specifically, it compares the CO2 production of masonry and clay construction of the same building using the SBToolCZ methodology. The results obtained showed that the clay building produces approximately 30% less CO2 than the masonry building. I created my thesis using ArchiCAD and DEKsoft software.

The diploma thesis processes the documentation of project which displays a building of school facility with an area for kindergarten and center of leisure time. Construction is situated in village Jesenice, part of Zdimerice, in district Prague – west. Resolving land is located within growing residential region. The new building is designed as a standalone with two aboveground floors, covered with flat vegetative rooftop with extensive greenery. The entrance into the object is mutual for both organizations. At the first aboveground floor is positioned the kindergarten with two sections each for twelve children. The second aboveground floor is designed with the purpose for center of leisure time activities for children and young adults. It includes art studio, ceramic workshop, ballet hall, musical or computer classrooms with the overall capacity of forty-three children. The space is lay out in accordance with conditions of barrier-free use.

Reading approaches in Japan and other EFL settings have typically focused on accuracy at the expense of fluency. However, reading rate and fluency are important components of reading that are currently being neglected. A review of the literature reveals growing interest in investigating the effectiveness of reading rate and fluency enhancement approaches such as extensive reading (ER), speed reading, and oral fluency training. Results of previous research indicate the effectiveness of these approaches for increasing reading speed and fluency as well as comprehension, but the overall body of evidence in this area remains weak, particularly in EFL contexts.With these gaps in mind, the purposes of this study were to investigate the effectiveness of the ER approach in developing reading fluency, investigate appropriate ways to measure reading fluency in adult EFL readers, investigate whether reading fluency increases are accompanied by reading comprehension increases, and identify the patterns of reading rate development that occur during an ER course. To this end, a longitudinal quasi-experimental study was conducted with 77 first-year students at a nursing college in Japan, all of whom participated in one 15-week semester of ER with an added fluency training component (ERFT) and one 15-week semester of intensive reading (IR). Silent reading rate, oral reading rate and fluency, reading comprehension, and written receptive vocabulary size were measured at the beginning and end of both semesters. Silent reading rate, oral reading rate, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension were measured using both simplified and authentic texts. Approximately half of the students took ERFT in the first semester and IR in the second semester, and the other half did the opposite, so analyses were conducted separately for these two groups. Repeated-measures ANOVAs showed that for the IR-before-ERFT group, oral reading rate increase was significantly greater for the ERFT treatment (9.79 wcpm) than the IR treatment (3.05 wcpm) (p < .001) for simplified texts; silent reading rate increase was significantly greater for the IR treatment (8.26 wpm) than the ERFT treatment (-2.86 wpm) (p < .001) for authentic texts; and oral reading rate increase was significantly greater for ERFT (15.18 wcpm) than IR (4.37 wcpm) (p < .001) for authentic texts. For the ERFT-before-IR group, silent reading rate increase was significantly greater for ERFT (19.22 wpm) than IR (-2.50 wpm) (p < .001) for simplified texts; oral reading rate increase was significantly greater for ERFT (12.55 wcpm) than IR (4.81 wcpm) (p < .001) for simplified texts; silent reading rate increase was significantly greater for ERFT (21.86 wpm) than IR (-7.64 wpm) (p < .001) for authentic texts; and oral reading rate increase was significantly greater for IR (13.06 wcpm) than ERFT (6.70 wcpm) (p < .001) for authentic texts. Repeated-measures ANOVAs also showed that for the IR-before-ERFT group, reading comprehension increase for authentic texts was significantly greater for IR (1.00 logits) than ERFT (.17 logits) (p = .010); and vocabulary size increase was significantly greater for IR (.36 logits) than ERFT (-.19 logits) (p = .001). For the ERFT-before-IR group, reading comprehension increase for authentic texts was significantly greater for ERFT (1.05 logits) than IR (.11 logits) (p = .003); and vocabulary size increase was significantly greater for ERFT (.44 logits) than IR (-.07 logits) (p = .001). No significant correlations were found between changes in any of the reading rate and fluency measures (silent reading rate, oral reading rate, and oral reading fluency) and reading comprehension change. For the ERFT-before-IR group, analysis revealed a significant and moderately high negative correlation (r = -.422) between initial silent reading rate and silent reading rate change (on simplified texts) during the ERFT treatment. Analysis of individual students’ silent reading rate change patterns during the ERFT semester revealed a jagged increase to be the most common (22/77; 28.57%) pattern of rate increase. These results add to a growing body of evidence that ERFT yields greater reading fluency gains than IR, suggest that both ERFT and IR contribute to reading comprehension and vocabulary size gains, suggest that ERFT yields greater reading fluency gains among students with initially slower reading rates, and provide insight into how individual’s reading rate changes over the course of a semester of ERFT. / Teaching & Learning

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